Know The 4 Fundamental Steps To Start Meditating

At many times of the day, perhaps too many, we go from paying attention to what is happening around us to dedicating most of our mental resources to working with our thoughts, whether they are problems or illusions. We somehow put on autopilot and disconnect. We get dressed, shower or have breakfast thinking about the first thing we will do when we get to work, in this way our working day begins long before we sit in front of the computer or pick up the tools.

How can we start to meditate?

To begin to meditate and reach a state where everything flows and our attention is fully focused on what is happening now, both inside and outside of us, there are many ways. One of the best known and most practiced in is  mindfulness, which  can be developed in four basic steps :

• Mindfulness : it is about focusing attention (without judging, defining or interpreting) on ​​what happens around us at a specific moment: the sounds, the objects we see, the touch we receive, etc. Simply observe.
• Relating to our thoughts and emotions : at that moment when we concentrate on what is happening around us, thoughts and emotions will appear, which we will let flow by becoming aware and accepting them without further ado.

• Living the here and now : the present is lived attending to it, carrying out day-to-day activities with full consciousness.
• Developing compassion : compassion begins with loving oneself, applying this affection to dear acquaintances and to the rest of the world, simple acquaintances or even enemies.

The mindfulness technique is a preparation process very similar to that of other procedures in which meditation is achieved. This is so because everyone is looking for a very peculiar situation: an awakening of attention and a state of body relaxation. If you think so, let’s go with the central ideas of this process that will help us to start meditating.

Body scan

The first idea is to relax the body, for which we can apply conscious breathing and a technique called “body scan” or review of the body. The body scan is about exploring and noticing your own body. It begins with the feet and the different areas are reviewed.

We observe with curiosity the sensations that we are receiving from each of the areas in which we focus our attention. The body scan can be extended from 5 to 20 minutes. Once this body sweep has been carried out, the meditative process is focused on the now, letting what it needs to work on emerge from our mind. We will acquire that position of observer.

Focus on the now

This focus on the present can be done through exercises of attention to an object (with any object, simply observing it). Also to sounds (listening to all the sounds that we surely do not perceive when we do not enter that state of fixation). Finally, to physical sensations (what we can feel in our body), among others.

Avoid judging and interpreting

Attention to mind and emotions from the observer’s perspective supposes receiving what our internal world wants to show us. At this point, it’s about avoiding interpreting and judging. Everything that happens inside us is normal and involves learning about ourselves.

These practices develop towards tonglen and metta. Tonglen and metta refer to compassion, towards ourselves and towards others. In this way, we move towards forgiveness, gratification, appreciation and compassion with what we have and with others.

Practical exercises to start meditating

To start meditating it is necessary to pay attention to different variables. They are the following: breath, senses, body, mind and activities of daily life. The exercises to be developed from mindfulness can be classified into five groups :

• Observation of present experiences: living life as if looking at a painting, observing the specific details of it, with a smile if possible.
• Managing thoughts : it is about welcoming all the visitors of our mind.
• Acts of mindfulness: doing the activities that we should do one by one and concentrating on what we are doing, slowing down the activities, for example.
• Acceptance and detachment : we assume that everything is in a continuous process of change and transformation, that nothing is immutable.
• Compassion and self-pity : we treat each other as if we were the compassionate mother of a child, realizing that everything will pass.

Observation of present experiences

One of the most famous exercises is the raisin. With a raisin in hand we will observe its shape, texture, color, smell, etc. Once we have explored it, we eat it slowly, also collecting impressions while we have it in our mouth. So we focus our attention on the present experience of observing and eating a raisin.

Another of the exercises that we can use to meditate are those of STOP and RAIL, which correspond to the following acronyms:

• S / Stop, stand up!
• T / Become aware of the breath.
• O / Observe what you think, feel and do.
• P / Participate and act consciously.

• R / Acknowledge the experience
• A / Accept it
• I / Investigate the experience
• L / Free yourself, don’t identify yourself

Managing thoughts

To manage thoughts we can perform the following exercises:

• Tagging thoughts : it is about naming the ideas that arise during the process.
• Spin time : refers to giving a certain and agreed time to our thoughts, for example, one hour in the morning.
• My discussion with Socrates : it consists in questioning everything that we accept, thus identifying all those thoughts that we have adopted without reflecting on them.

Acts of Mindfulness

It is about recording on a sheet of paper the activity we are carrying out, the degree of effective presence in that activity (0-100) and what other activities we were doing in the meantime. In this way we will become aware of the attention we pay to what was happening or what we were doing at that moment.

Acceptance and detachment

It can be developed through the challenge of 100 things , by David Bruno (2010). It consists of getting rid of things, as it is more useful to collect moments than things. In this way, we will practice detachment from possessions, but also from relationships that can be harmful.

Compassion and self-pity

The practice of compassion can be carried out as follows:

• Morning ritual : upon awakening, we will repeat the following to ourselves: “Today I feel lucky to have awakened, I am alive and I have a precious human life, and I am not going to waste it. I will use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart towards others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I will have good thoughts towards others, I will not get angry or think badly of others. I will benefit others as much as possible. “

• Similarities with others: it consists of not focusing on the differences -which is what we usually do- and finding the similarities, that we have them. Let’s think that we all seek the same thing: happiness, avoiding suffering, sadness, loneliness and despair. We also seek to meet personal needs and learn from life and, from that point, let’s try to get closer.

These are the basic exercises that can serve as a reference for anyone who wants to start meditating. As you can see, they are very simple, especially if we compare them with all the well-being that their implementation can report.